When the Tullaghmurry Lass fishing boat disappeared — at the time, seemingly without trace — on February 14, 2002, three generations of the Greene family went with it.

The tight-knit fishing community of Kilkeel was plunged into profound shock and mourning when 53-year-old Michael Greene, his 33-year-old son and eight-year-old grandson, both also named Michael, died in the tragedy.

PSNI officer Declan Greene, who was killed in yesterday’s horrific car crash, was one of the wider family members plunged into unimaginable grief when the boat failed to return from an early morning family fishing trip taken while the youngest Michael was off school because it was half-term.

When the alarm was raised that cold, winter’s evening, helicopters from Aldergrove and Dublin were tasked, along with lifeboats from Newcastle, Kilkeel, Port St Mary and Peel on the Isle of Man. They were joined by a fleet of 16 local fishing boats and an RAF Nimrod from Scotland.

As time passed and all hopes of finding survivors finally faded, remote control underwater vehicles, dive teams and sonar equipment continued to be deployed to try to trace the bodies.

The Greenes endured an unbearable wait for news for a full five weeks before the wreckage of the 10-metre family-owned vessel was discovered on the seabed, seven miles out to sea.

It took three tortuous weeks more before the bodies were finally recovered and returned to their loved ones for burial.

An inquest into the deaths found that the young boy, his father and grandfather drowned after the boat was sunk by an explosion, possibly caused by the leaking of cooking gas. The Tullaghmurry Lass went down on a stretch of water called Chapel Hards, before its crew had the chance to land the nets for the prawns they were hoping to catch.

On April 17, 2002, Kilkeel marked one of its darkest days in living memory when hundreds of mourners turned out to pay their respects to the Greene family as they gathered for the unthinkable task of burying three generations on one day.

Both Michael Greene and his son were well experienced and qualified fisherman. They were no strangers to the dangers of the sea, nor was Michael who regularly joined them on the boat.

The sea had been a great source of sustenance for the Greenes over five or six generations of fishermen and the 2002 tragedy was not the first time it had brought sorrow to the family door.

Michael senior’s brother Hugo, drowned in Kilkeel harbour 24 years ago, aged 32.

Now, the wider Greene family is once again having to cope with news that one another of its sons, Declan, has been taken in untimely and tragic circumstances close to the shores of Carlingford Lough.